How to Improve Effective Team Communication in the Workplace (Updated)

“What is team communication?” is a million-dollar question as it has various definitions based on the business preferences and requirements.

Healthy and unhindered team communication plays a vital role in boosting the productivity and efficiency of any organization.

Working in isolation and a silo-type environment will break down the equations between working staff and harm their productivity. Team communication helps in achieving goals in a unified and targeted way. 

As the saying goes,

it takes two to tango. No organization can afford to progress without bringing about a collective work culture among its employees.

At times communication can get strained due to the pressures of corresponding on multiple platforms to achieve the common objective of work. It is where team communication skills play a major role.

It is imperative that larger a team grows in number the communication channel should be smarter and smoother, and of course safer. This fosters strong and binding teamwork for the overall benefit of the entity.

This being imperative, it makes a lot of sense to plan ways to improve workplace communication.

While effective team communication is not easy to achieve, a concerted and focused effort will ensure all the staff is on a single platform, irrespective of the place of work.

A few decisive steps enumerated below can help achieve the objective of team building and improving work efficiency levels. Take a look.

1. Gel Well

It pays to build a positive attitude and team communication skills among team members through inclusive strategies.

Higher trust, more open and sincerer will be the exchange of information within the organization.

The leader should ensure to have a personal rapport with the team to establish the fair and frank exchange of work-related opinions and viewpoints. Participative working and management style are any days better than working in silos.

2. Instill Trust

When do you think you people will open out to you?

Is it your wealth, charm or authority? Well, these qualities may rather ‘force’ colleagues and subordinates to be pliant than ensuring a committed and honest response to work.

Let your actions stand up and showcase who you are. Lead by example and instill a higher degree of trust and team communication among the employees. Show genuine interest in people, empathize with them to elicit fairer relationships to foster work culture. According to several surveys, nearly one-third of employees have a positive abhorrence towards their employers.

This feeling of distrust is a stumbling block in achieving a harmonious working. A flow of information breaks down in the absence of trust, seriously jeopardizing the working environment. 

3. Get to know individuals better

A blanket opinion about the staff is a big no when it comes to managing them. Take time, understand each individual and know their strengths.

By understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s easier to have effective team communication in the workplace.

No two personalities resemble fully. Comprehend the subtle variations in moods, responses, and reactions of one and all to varying situations at work.

Do not stereotype people.

4. Provide a level playing field

Ability to respect diversity begets positive vibes in the work environment.

Respect differing styles of working as long as the ultimate goal is not vitiated by divergent work styles.

While some may prefer team chat, some may depend on face-to-face interaction. However, both come under team communication skills.

Factor such preferences wherever possible and feasible to promote seamless communication among and with peers and staff. 

5. Ensure transparency

When a team is working on a big project and coordinating multiple tasks,

it is advisable each member is aware of the goals, deadlines, and limitations in the project work sphere.

Also, each should be clear of his/her role, responsibilities and duties.

Seamless exchange of necessary data across the members will facilitate economy of time as well as the effort of team members. 

6. Unifying platform

Apart from various psychological perspectives cited above regarding the importance of team communication, a unified platform to communicate enhances team communication in the workplace.

While choosing such a multi-purpose tool, the choice for entities, thanks to modern technology, is very wide. Effective team communication tool depends on several parameters like

Several parameters like

(i) ease of use;

(ii) safety and security of data;

(iii) multi-platform compatibility;

(iv) cost etc form prime differentiators amongst the multitude of business chat apps available for users.

While the trail-blazing and trendsetting apps like Skype offer these and several other features in abundance, it comes at a cost.

With the office chat app domain swelling in size over the last few years, several low-cost but high on features and facilities like Troop Messenger have emerged in the market.

Many chat applications available now are proof of the importance of team communication for businesses irrespective of size and form.

Troop Messenger offers, among other features the following for ensuring effortless, safe and secure communication within the entity:

• Individual chat for one-to-one communication
• Group creation to catch up on team activities in the group, and make team communication easier than ever before for business performance
• Multimedia sharing for exchanging audio, video, images and still images were taken with your phone camera
• File sharing instantly and with ease.
• Data sharing with external apps to share attachments with third-party chat apps like WhatsApp, Viber, Gmail etc
• Location and contact sharing to share your current location with team and colleagues and directly make a call to catch up with your colleagues
• Forward message with one click to the group, individuals or multiple contacts
• Attachment preview and download for easy checking files without downloading and download it with a single tap to save to local device
• Group creation to catch up on team activities in the group, and make communication easier than ever before for business performance
• User Profile for being professional and recognized by others
• Pin chat to avoid multiple scrolling, just pin your favorite or frequent contacts at the top of the chat list.
• Data backup for automatic restoration of data on reinstalling Troop Messenger.
• Notification to facilitate the announcement of events, deadlines, celebrations etc
• Server-side encryption for tight security and privacy of information and data.

Conclusion 

The unified chat app domain is choc-a-block with business chat apps providing diverse features and catering to the myriad needs of users. While most of these team communication tools charge users monthly, few are available which provide free services with heightened security features. Choose wisely because improving team communication is the key to success